Alex Singleton is part of the Daily Telegraph's leader-writing team and is a contributing editor at the Sunday Telegraph. You can visit his personal site and follow him on Twitter.

It pays to cut tariffs

Peter Mandelson, the EU trade commissioner, has a tough couple of months ahead. He's determined to create a set of new trade deals between the EU and countries that are mostly former colonies, known in trade-speak as the African, Carribean and Pacific (ACP) economies. His main problem is the huge opposition being stirred up by the usual suspects in the development community such as ActionAid and the World Development Movement. They do not like Mr Mandelson's insistence that the ACP countries must reciprocate in some way.

Development speeds up once trade barriers are lifted

The campaigners' arguments are hopelessly mixed up, based on the assumption that protection somehow benefits poor countries. Yet the evidence is clear: open developing countries grow faster and are better at poverty reduction than closed ones. There are legitimate criticisms of these trade deals, but the desire for protectionism is not one of them. Besides, Mr Mandelson points out that he has to ask for reciprocation in order to make them compliant with World Trade Organisation rules.

Some campaigners, however, try a stronger – but still flawed – argument. They say that poor countries have difficulties collecting ordinary taxes and that tariffs are an easy way to pay for hospitals and roads. Mr Mandelson isn't having any of this. Speaking to the European Parliament's Development Committee yesterday, he said: "the evidence is that when tariffs come down, tariff revenue tends to go up." That's music to my ears.